–STM– When the Department of Defense (DoD) wants to build a jet engine, it doesn’t put a team of engineers in a hangar with a block of metal and some chisels. Jet engines are made up of individual components that are carefully assembled into a finished product that possesses the desired performance capabilities. In the case of thin-film deposition—a process in which coatings with special properties are bonded to materials and parts to enhance performance—current science addresses the process as though it is attempting to build a jet engine from a block of metal, focusing on the whole and ignoring the parts. Like a jet engine, the thin-film deposition process could work better if it was addressed at the component level.

Thin-film deposition requires high levels of energy to achieve the individual chemical steps to deposit a coating on a substrate. Under the current state of practice, that necessary energy is generated by applying very high temperatures—more than 900 degrees Celsius in some cases—at the surface of the substrate as part of a chemical vapor deposition process. The problem with using the thermal energy hammer is that the minimum required processing temperatures exceed the maximum temperatures that many substrates of interest to DoD can withstand. As a result, a wide range of capabilities remain out of reach.

DARPA created the Local Control of Materials Synthesis (LoCo) program to overcome the reliance on high thermal energy input by addressing the process of thin-film deposition at the component level in areas such as reactant flux, surface mobility, reaction energy, nucleation and by-product removal, among others. In so doing, LoCo will attempt to create new, low-temperature deposition processes and a new range of coating-substrate pairings for use in DoD technologies.

“What really matters in thin-film deposition is energy, not heat,” said Brian Holloway, DARPA program manager. “If we break down the thin-film deposition process into components, we should be able to achieve better results by looking at each piece individually and then merging those solutions into a new low-temperature process. It’s going to be researchers in specialties like plasma chemistry, photophysics, surface acoustic spectroscopy and solid-state physics who make it possible. DARPA seeks scientists who can contribute pieces of the puzzle so that the LoCo team can put them together.”

Breakthroughs in thin-film deposition could enhance performance and enable new capabilities across a range of DoD technologies, impacting areas as diverse as artificial arteries, corrosion-resistant paint and steel combinations, erosion-resistant rotor blades, photovoltaics and long-wavelength infrared missile domes, among others.

As a second focus area, the LoCo program seeks performers to evaluate the cost and performance impacts of coating application to existing DoD parts and systems. Through these assessments, DARPA hopes to identify a specific piece of equipment that would benefit from a novel coating to use as a test bed for any new thin-film deposition process. Through this parallel effort, LoCo intends to move from initial research to practical application within three years.

Other News

–STM– It isn’t always easy to catch a killer. Doing so often demands a determined effort, a detailed profile, and sometimes, a bright light. That’s what researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are trying to do. The killer they’re after is one of the deadliest in history. In 2010 alone, it afflicted an estimated 216 million people, and took some 655,000 lives worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. The killer is malaria, and its deadliest form is caused […]

–STM– Currently being developed by DARPA researchers at Washington-based Innovega iOptiks are contact lenses that enhance normal vision by allowing a wearer to view virtual and augmented reality images without the need for bulky apparatus. Instead of oversized virtual reality helmets, digital images are projected onto tiny full-color displays that are very near the eye. These novel contact lenses allow users to focus simultaneously on objects that are close up and far away. This could improve ability to use tiny […]

–STM– Proteins are essential in almost all biological processes. The three-dimensional shape of the protein, which is essential to its function, is determined by protein folding. Foldit, which was initially funded by DARPA, is a game with an online community of 240,000 players that allows non-experts and experts alike to collaborate and solve protein folding puzzles. Solutions to these puzzles are sent to biochemistry researchers to analyze for advances in protein design prediction. Recent advances from Foldit include identifying the structure […]

– STM – Last week marked the deadline for submissions to the “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator” challenge, and the U.S. Department of Energy today announced that it will give Americans the chance to vote for the most innovative and promising technologies supported by the program. The Department also announced today that 36 start-up companies have answered the call to participate in this first of its kind effort. These companies have signed 43 option agreements allowing them to license valuable, […]

Darpa Hummingbird Video on YOUTUBE –STM–Rapidly flapping wings to hover, dive, climb, or dart through an open doorway, DARPA’s remotely controlled Nano Air Vehicle relays real-time video from a tiny on-board camera back to its operator. Weighing less than a AA battery and resembling a live hummingbird, the vehicle could give war fighters an unobtrusive view of threats inside or outside a building from a safe distance. TIME Magazine named the Hummingbird one of the best 50 inventions of […]

–STM– An advanced material that could help bring about next-generation “spintronic” computers has revealed one of its fundamental secrets to a team of scientists from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The material, constructed of two different compounds, might one day allow computers to use the magnetic spin of electrons, in addition to their charge, for computation. A host of innovations could result, including fast memory devices that use considerably less power than […]

–STM– The backbone of our energy infrastructure is carbon-based fuel. In the form of oil, coal and natural gas, carbon compounds run our cars, heat our homes and cook our food. For reasons of energy security and limiting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, we need to transition to alternative and sustainable fuels. We can minimize the shock of transitioning away from fossil fuels to sustainable sources by using as much existing carbon-based infrastructure as possible. All life is carbon based. Plants are […]

Survival of the Elements This close-up image shows the ‘Materials on International Space Station Experiment-8.’ Taken during the spacewalk on July 12, 2011, the small circles pictured are test beds for materials and computing elements attached to the outside of the International Space Station. ide a better understanding of the durability of various materials and computing elements when they are exposed to the rigors of space environments and hope to incorporate what is learned into the design of future spacecraft. […]